Understanding TruthIn this book, Scott Soames illuminates the notion of truth and the role it plays in our ordinary thought, as well as in our logical, philosophical, and scientific theories. Part I addresses crucial background issues, including the identification of the bearers of truth, the basis for distinguishing truth from other notions (like certainty, with which it is often confused), and the formulation of positive responses to well-known forms of philosophical skepticism about truth. Part II explicates the formal theories of Alfred Tarski and Saul Kripke, including their treatments of the Liar paradox, and evaluates the philosophical significance of their work. Part III extends important lessons drawn from Tarski and Kripke into new domains: vague predicates, the Sorites paradox, and the development of a larger, deflationary perspective on truth. Soames aims to integrate and deepen the most significant insights on truth from a variety of sources. He powerfully brings together the best technical work an the most important philosophical reflection on truth and shows how each can illuminate the other. |
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accept Alfred Tarski analysis antiextension assert assignment atomic sentences chapter characterize claim conception of truth context continuum hypothesis definition of truth deflationism denotation determinate-extension determined domain equivalent Etchemendy example express propositions fact false first-order first-order logic fixed point formula Frege Gödel number hierarchy instances of schema interpretation Kripke Kripke's Liar paradox Liar sentences linguistic logical consequence logical truth looks green metalanguage model-theoretic n-tuple natural languages negation notion of truth object object-language ordinary notion partially defined philosophical physicalistic premise proposition expressed quantification reject result S₁ S₂ Scott Soames second-order logic semantic sense sentence of English sequence Q smidget snow is white Sorites Sorites paradox speakers Tarski's definition Tarskian truth tences theoretical theory of meaning Theory of Truth things true iff true in English true relative true sentence truth conditions truth definition truth predicate truth value undefined utterance vague predicates variable word true